do you believe in love at first sight?

Oh, I'm certain that it happens all the time.



Look at them. Look at their beauty. Look at their perfect collegiate styling. Look at how perfect they are for a sophomore in college who loves vintage styling and only owns three pairs of shoes (beat up flats, beat up Converse, and beat up boots) other than rain boots and doesn't have the money to spend on a pair of over $100 shoes but desperately wants a pair of American Duchess shoes because she literally drools on her keyboard every time they're released.

That may have gotten a little specific towards the end. :)

The wonderful Lauren is giving away a pair here, but if you aren't in a similar situation to the aforementioned college sophomore, please, please support her and her wonderfulness and buy a pair of her absolutely lovely shoes (I always use up all the synonyms for beautiful in posts about her shoes). They're up for pre-order here. Or they will be.

Main point: I'm in love with another pair of shoes. So, so in love.

top 3...

indie patterns I wish I could sew:

picture originally belongs here

the Cascade skirt by Megan Nielsen

the Bombshell Swimsuit by Closet Case Files

the Cambie dress by Sewaholic

(but also the Sureau dress by Deer and Doe--can I make this a top four? or maybe five?)

things I wish were on my needles right now:

shamelessly fliched from here

Velvet Night by Julie Crawford

Stockhom Scarf, also by Julie Crawford

I Heart Cardigans by Tanis Lavallee

(I might be a bit excited for fall and snuggly wool cardigans and scarves and leaves changing and cooler temperatures and...I'm going to stop there before I turn this into why-I-love-fall)

recipes I want to try:

Chocolate Covered Katie's version of the one minute chocolate cake

chocolate peanut butter microwave oatmeal

dorm room enchiladas (my mommy's/abuelita's recipe combined with college student ingenuity!)

things that are confusing me:

comes from here through the glorious google images :)

Yvain ou le chevalier au lion (it's a book we're reading for my French class and I'm totally lost in a mess of "il vint". Passé simple what?)

cronuts (nuff said)

the pricing of Victoria's Secret sweaters (come on, folks, your likely sweatshop-made sweater is not worth $70)

things I want to do today:

sewing

knitting

dancing

Sorry, Yvain, you just didn't make the cut. ;)

fo: by-your-birthday, better late than never

the floor is funny. laugh at the floor.

This was my stats project, back when I took stats in high school. And by stats project, I actually mean "the knitting project I worked on instead of taking notes". You can tell I was a very dedicated statistics student.

The idea was to finish it by my mommy's birthday that year. Um. I finished knitting it...I just didn't block it until a few weeks ago. Um. It's only a couple of years late. But I did block it and this is it in its loveliness. Can I still get credit?

Pattern: Live Oak Shawlette by Romi Hill
Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks in a colorway that I don't know the name of, but reminds me of mermaids :)
Time spent with needle in hands: Um. Let's put down an um.
Its ravelhome is here.

I really like this pattern, once again from the incomparable Knitscene Fall 2011. Only, I didn't size up the needle enough, so I wound up with a fairly small shawlette after one repeat. Another repeat made it feel more normal, but I still just wish the thing had wound up larger.

Fun fact: I originally bought this yarn to make this tank top (which I still love, because it's beautiful, and I will make it, despite the complete impracticality of knitted tank tops for me). But then I decided it was waaaay too stripey, so I stuck it in the yarn drawer and looked at it only when desperation started to loom. And then my mom mentioned a desire for a shawl and all the little lights in my brain (doesn't your imagined-picture-of-your-brain have lights all over it?) went bing! Perfect use for all the stripey mermaid color yarn.

There's not much I wish I had done differently with this. Maybe sized up that needle. Maybe another lace repeat. Maybe, um, blocked it sooner. As in before I graduated high school. But the lace still looks pretty and the stripes still look like a mermaid, and most importantly, my mommy loves it and got super excited about it. :D

lace closeup, 'cos when it's lace you gotta do a closeup

fo: wishing, wandering, flying? sweater

Warning: I'm apparently in a bit of a blue period. So far, three out of the four things I've made this summer are blue. It feels scarily/pleasantly monochromatic. Both ears are staying solidly attached to my head though! And I’m starting a black skirt, so it seems to be ending. :)

Pattern: Lepidoptera by Anne Kuo Lukito
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss Lace in Winter Nights
Time spent with needles in hand: probably about 3 weeks; I’m not so good at time estimating
Its ravelhome is here.

The yarn was a dream to work with, especially after years of rough acrylic that wouldn't block well and that just basically fought me at every step. I felt so ridiculously spoiled by that oh-so-loverly silk content and the cushy merino wool. My mom and dad bought it for me as a birthday present, and I couldn’t be happier with the actual fiber.

closeup of that gorgeous lace (and my hands, being awkward)

I modified the sweater to have full-length sleeves, because as flattering as cute little three-quarters sleeves are, they are not the ideal length for keeping those wrists warm. Of course, it could always be a scheme to make you knit some wrist warmers or fingerless gloves, (Hmmm...I feel like I’m on to something. But if it’s a scheme, I’m okay with it. This chispita is always in favor of more knitting.) They wound up a little loose at the wrist, but otherwise they feel wonderful. And warm--far too warm for the middle of summer. But the midwest in winter is a completely different box of fish sticks (or fish fingers, with or without custard). I know I’m going to love this sweater once the temperature starts dropping. My only complaint is completely operator error--I have some nasty lines on one sleeve for dpn joins. Well, you win some, you lose some. (Okay, I’m actually pretty frustrated, but I’m trying to get over it and love my sweater.)

Overall, the pattern worked up wonderfully, even with me fretting at every turn that my three tiny balls of laceweight were going to run out while I was halfway through with a sleeve. Silly me. Of course the people know what they’re talking about. I really love this pattern. So far, everything I’ve knit up from Knitscene is amazingly well-designed and chispita-proof.

Oddly enough, my very not 1880s day dress sweater kept reminding me of this dress from Phantom of the Opera from "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" (possibly because I listened to Phantom on crazy repeat while I was making this).

Christine looks worried; I was trying to look like I was singing. And apparently scared.

And then when I actually finished it and started to trying to take pictures I realized it reminded me of something else.

It might just be the blue sweater and the white cami. But. It reminds me. It also reminds that I really have a limited mind--musicals and Titanic. Is this a bad thing?

Um,  I'm going to say no....but I'm also going to go listen to my reggaeton so I'm as diverse as a pile of college applications. :)

****Sad update: this somehow ended up in my second load of laundry of the year and the washing machine decided that it was too big for me. In other words, I forgot to take it out before throwing the wash in the machine and it felted to a just-this-side-of-unwearable size. Someday soon I'll be showing you what to do with a well-beloved sweater that you just accidentally and unevenly shrank. Once I stop sniffling when I look at it.****

fo: rose in spanish harlem

me trying to look like the picture in the magazine :)

I'm not sure what's so Spanish or Harlem about this hat. But I was trying to think of song lyrics about flowers, and that's what came to mind. Maybe it's because the pattern collection was about urban knits?

Or maybe I'm stretching things here.

Back to the hat on my little noggin. This is a Bored Lisa Hat. They make up 90% of the hats I make—the ones I knit up because it's broiling hot Southwest summer and I'm bored out of my skull. So I knit a hat.

Pattern: Speer Cap from Fall 2011 issue of Knitscene, a magazine I've come to love through some good old fashioned ravel-stalking (a word I just made up to mean stalking on ravelry until you think you know everything about the designer/magazine/book/collection and you want to spend your college tuition on yarn and patterns instead of, you know, collegiate things)

Yarn: Lion's Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in Charcoal and...something else

Ravelled here.

I've made this pattern twice now, but the first was with some old maroon Red Heart worsted acrylic that I held double and pretended was chunky. Um. May not have been the prettiest Bored Hat I've ever made. 

This time I used leftovers from the Bella mittens I made (which are mysteriously unblogged) and then decided it needed a big, burgundy flower. I quickly crocheted one up from some mystery wool from a ridiculously old granny square kit that I got for Christmas some time when I was still small enough to regularly receive craft kits for Christmas.

look what a beautiful model my bookshelf is!

Anyway. This pattern. I actually really, really love it this go round. It's long enough to cover my ears (and then some), which is really important for me. I don't really understand winter hats that leave your ears unprotected. I have hair to keep the rest of my head warm. My ears are the ones needing another animal's hair to keep snuggly. I also like the addition of the flower. I like the little feminine addition. Makes it...cuter. 'Cos the original pattern, though nice, wasn't loverly. And I like loverly.  

I'm foreseeing this becoming a nice Winter Buddy for my cold little head once  I'm not melting in the aforementioned Southwest summer and the Midwest winter is dumping snow everywhere, including (but not limited to) my head. 'Cos there wasn't enough legal language in that: hearsay, object, undersigned. And stuff. 

It's hat love. :)

In other news, I'm still in the middle of a highly Internet-less summer, so activity here on the webs is going to continue being limited. But I'm still working on stuff, I promise! I have another hat, part of a cute little dove, a dress, yarn ordered for a sweater (eep! excitement!)...this fall there will be lots of fun things. Until then, lots of chispita love!

all the pretty ladies: a 1900 silhouette

Hey Internet world! Unfortunately, the end of school meant the end of stable Internet for me (I don't have a connection at home), but fortunately, as long as I'm at the local community college, I have access again. Still, my already spotty presence is just going to get spottier. :/

My senior year of high school I took some really fantastic pointless classes: Theatre and Desktop Publishing, even though I'm not really an actress and I'm not going to be a graphic designer. But the first taught me to use croquis* to design costumes and the second taught me how to make silhouettes and outlines of figures. Useful skills for a sewist/designer, I thought to myself.

Then I started looking for a croquis for other decades. The 1900s, for instance. I like designing vintage/historical clothes, and in order to properly do that, you need a croquis with the proper foundation garments. After all, one can imagine that a modern croquis is wearing a nice bra and some cute undies. It gives the proper silhouette. And yet...these seemingly don't exist. So I used my senior year random classes and my Adobe CS2 (that I got for free), and came up with this:

For the sake of other would-be designers who are lazy and don't like drawing silhouettes and constantly getting them wrong (or want to make a 1900 Cinderella dress like me!), I'm going to share this. 

Get your own 1900 silhouette!

I really enjoyed making this silhouette, and I'm going to make more for other time periods (probably the Natural Form bustle period next) because I love drawing old clothes. If you guys would like to share in the fun, let me know in the comments and we can all have pretty little historical ladies! 

*I hate the word croquis. It makes me think of how when people die you say they croaked. I will say silhouette forever rather than say croquis, no matter how much more specific it is. Same with trolling and derp. I hate those words with a passion. 

princess for a day: cinderella

Back in October, I looked at Belle's costume and how you could make a not-80's inspired Belle dress. Basically, it was I-wish-I-had-a-sewing-machine-and-money daydream about pretty dresses around midterms. Now that I'm getting into spring finals, the same thing is hitting me. This time though, I picked Cinderella--and I want to do a little better at putting this together now!

This is the Cinderella I'm used to (and that I think most people are used to). Cinderella came out in 1950, so her look was very Dior New Look inspired, with the holdovers from the '40s. Her dress has a series of box pleats going down the center of her skirt, an overskirt/bustle/pannier thing going on, a tight, center-seam bodice, and cute little puffed sleeves. For the most part, though, to be identifiably Cinderella, you just need a pale blue dress with sleeves (preferably puffed!) and a natural waistline. But mainly the color. 

This is a 1943 pattern that looks a lot like Cinderella's! You can see the inspiration from things like this in her gown.

source

This might be colored Belle, but that full fifties skirt and the little sleeves are definitely also Cinderella reminiscent. And if it were blue, this would look pretty Cinderella-ish. 

source

Here's a mid-1880s bustle gown with an overskirt, vaguely reminiscent of Cinderella's. It has the same tight-fitting bodice with a very different skirt silhouette, which plays up the historical changes. It wouldn't be too hard to add in some puffed sleeves, with a little bit of sewing experience.

source

Not at all the right color, but the 1890s were all about puffed sleeves, tight bodices, and full skirts. Many evening gowns had tiny little puffed sleeves much like Cinderella's. Done right, something like this could be very princess-y!

source

Now, we don't do the big floofy skirts of sixty years ago. But I'd love to see someone take a simple pattern like this A-line skirt one and make it a fantastic formal for Cinderella--especially with the cut-out back!

source

Of course, most of these are so costume-y/formal, I'd never sew them for their impracticality. So I also love the idea of an everyday princess dress, for all those days when your social calendar is perverse and simply won't give you a ball to attend. This has such cute, mid-century princess-esque details, like the puffed sleeves and ruffles. 

Where do you find inspiration for a princess dress?